MaxII is not really a follow-up of MAX7000 or the MAX3000A family. One
should call this a Mini-Cyclone FPGA.

The equivalent of Coolrunner-II is Atmel's ATF15xxBE family. they have
the best low volume pricing; Checkout Digikey

Y

Sorry, my mistake.  I should have known better--I just used a MAXII part in 
a design :)



"Paul Leventis" <paul.leventis@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1147387024.723712.313290@q12g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>H iRob,
>
> Just a quick correction -- our CPLD is MAX II, which is a follow on to
> our MAX family of CPLDs (MAX7000 and MAX3000 series).  Not to be
> confused with MaxPlus II, which was the design software that preceded
> Quartus.
>
> There's tons of info on these families available on our website
> (www.altera.com).  And you can download a free copy of Quartus II Web
> Edition to try them out.
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul Leventis
> Altera Corp.
> 

H iRob,

Just a quick correction -- our CPLD is MAX II, which is a follow on to
our MAX family of CPLDs (MAX7000 and MAX3000 series).  Not to be
confused with MaxPlus II, which was the design software that preceded
Quartus.

There's tons of info on these families available on our website
(www.altera.com).  And you can download a free copy of Quartus II Web
Edition to try them out.

Regards,

Paul Leventis
Altera Corp.

I believe the cross-overs would be something like this, although I could be 
mistaken.

CoolRunnerII - MAXII Plus
Spartan3/3e - Cyclone/CycloneII
VirtexII - Stratix/StratixII

I've used both  the Virtex II Pro and the Stratix Series devices, and for 
any of  my applications both would have worked.  Each mfg has different 
strengths in each category; but I haven't found (doesn't mean there isn't) 
any one convincing spec that puts one so much above the other.   There have 
been past posts (ad nauseam) dealing with the topic of whose FPGA rules the 
world.  Some of it is pride, some ignorance, some just marketing magic. 
Bottom line is both can probably get you where you want to go.

I primarily use Altera because the company I work for happened to choose 
them as a preferred vendor.  Our typical applications deal with video 
processing, and either mfg can doubtless play strong in this arena.

The MAXII Plus devices can be clocked at impressive speeds for a PLD, and 
quite inexpensive in quantity.

Rob



"Eli Hughes" <emh203@psu.edu> wrote in message 
news:e3so95$1e3o$1@f04n12.cac.psu.edu...
>I have a question for those experienced with Altera devices.  Could someone 
>please identify (roughly) the Brand A equivilents of these brand X parts:
>
> CoolRunner II
> Spartan 3/3e
> Virtex II
>
> I am not trying to be a flame baiter, but I would really like to hear 
> other people's thoughts of Altera's equivlents.  I used to use the Altera 
> CPLD (MAX7000) a long time ago and had a good experience.  What are the 
> FPGA devices like.
>
>
> Thanks again.
> -Eli 

Eli Hughes wrote:

> I have a question for those experienced with Altera devices.  Could 
> someone please identify (roughly) the Brand A equivilents of these brand 
> X parts:
> 
> CoolRunner II

Atmel have ATF150xASL, that have wider Vcc, but lower Speeds.
Their new ATF1502BE series, is more closely equivalent to the XCR2 family.

Xilinx have larger devices in both series.

-jg

I have a question for those experienced with Altera devices.  Could 
someone please identify (roughly) the Brand A equivilents of these brand 
X parts:

CoolRunner II
Spartan 3/3e
Virtex II

I am not trying to be a flame baiter, but I would really like to hear 
other people's thoughts of Altera's equivlents.  I used to use the 
Altera CPLD (MAX7000) a long time ago and had a good experience.  What 
are the FPGA devices like.


Thanks again.
-Eli